Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why Good Players Do Not 14.25.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7001542" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>The enemies do not think, though. The DM is the enemies. This is hiding the pea. If the enemies are wearing heavier armor because of story reasons, then this is utterly orthogonal to whatever build or capabilities the players choose. EG, it doesn't matter if you have combat monsters or the knitting club, the enemies are making their decisions to wear heavier armor because of some other factor in the fiction. If, however, they wear heavy armor because the players are combat monsters and the DM wishes these enemies to be tougher to offset that, then the decision is being made because the enemies are pieces in a game and the reasoning is for game reasons, whatever other justification you come up with to obscure this.</p><p></p><p>The other option is that the enemies wear heavier armor as a consequence of player actions, but this should be clearly established in the fiction --eg, the BBEG notes that his last set of minions was easily dispatched and so makes sure the next set is well equipped. But this only functions so long as it makes sense with the resources available and only for those enemies that have prior knowledge. If random encounter X is a bunch of enemies that the players have never seen before and they're all wearing upgraded armor for no particular reason, then it's still metagaming and a problem.</p><p></p><p>So, you have ex ante -- reasons that exist regardless of player actions; ex post facto -- metagaming a change to the baseline to offset player game choices; and just consequences, where you make changes as consequence for fictional actions. To be honest, most of the suggestions to just pick appropriately ACed enemies to challenge characters are ex post facto that then suggest pulling a thin cover of justification to hide the fact.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7001542, member: 16814"] The enemies do not think, though. The DM is the enemies. This is hiding the pea. If the enemies are wearing heavier armor because of story reasons, then this is utterly orthogonal to whatever build or capabilities the players choose. EG, it doesn't matter if you have combat monsters or the knitting club, the enemies are making their decisions to wear heavier armor because of some other factor in the fiction. If, however, they wear heavy armor because the players are combat monsters and the DM wishes these enemies to be tougher to offset that, then the decision is being made because the enemies are pieces in a game and the reasoning is for game reasons, whatever other justification you come up with to obscure this. The other option is that the enemies wear heavier armor as a consequence of player actions, but this should be clearly established in the fiction --eg, the BBEG notes that his last set of minions was easily dispatched and so makes sure the next set is well equipped. But this only functions so long as it makes sense with the resources available and only for those enemies that have prior knowledge. If random encounter X is a bunch of enemies that the players have never seen before and they're all wearing upgraded armor for no particular reason, then it's still metagaming and a problem. So, you have ex ante -- reasons that exist regardless of player actions; ex post facto -- metagaming a change to the baseline to offset player game choices; and just consequences, where you make changes as consequence for fictional actions. To be honest, most of the suggestions to just pick appropriately ACed enemies to challenge characters are ex post facto that then suggest pulling a thin cover of justification to hide the fact. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why Good Players Do Not 14.25.
Top